On March 10, Malaysia-based Scomi, a world leader in the production of monorails, laid the cornerstone of its first Brazilian manufacturing facility in the city of Taubaté, São Paulo. The unit will be built on an area covering 98,000 square meters, with an initial investment between R$50 to 60 million. The project relies on the support from Investe São Paulo, the export and investment promotion agency of São Paulo State Government.

In the manufacturing complex, the company will produce monorail trains for Line 18 – Bronze and Line 17 – Gold in São Paulo, in addition to other subway-railway equipment. The idea is to use the facility for the storage of rolling stock imported from Malaysia in the first months of the year, but the construction of the industrial units will begin in the second half of this year. There will be five or six buildings producing monorails with up to 70% of nationalization and Light Rail Vehicles (LRV) with a rate of approximately 60%.

The operation is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2016. It will have the capacity to produce three trains, formed by five monorail cars, per month.

“The State of São Paulo has an excellent demand of skilled workforce, development policy and incentives for investments. Taubaté has a strategic geographical location – between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro – with easy access to ports and excellent roads. This allows a rapid access to any part of Brazil and the Americas,” said Halan Moreira, vice president of Brasell, a shareholder of Scomi Group joint venture in Brazil.

“We have been assisting Scomi for over a year. We have helped the company select a location for the unit and provided strategic information, particularly with respect to environmental and infrastructure aspects required for the project. The company further strengthens our supply chain related to rail transportation – a modality in which São Paulo State Government has been increasingly investing over the past few years,” said the president of Investe SP, Juan Quirós.

The expectation is that the unit also meets the demand of other countries in South and North America. In the first year of the project, it will create approximately 500 jobs.

The plant will be designed prioritizing low impact on the environment with the use of natural daylight and the preservation of a green area in the manufacturing unit.

The monorail is one of the most viable alternatives to improve urban mobility in the metropolitan area of São Paulo, the largest in South America, due to its characteristics of implementation and operation. Its gradeability of 6% slope and the ability to handle curves with a radius of 50 meters, allow the monorail, unlike other systems, to integrate the existing systems without causing major impacts. Its lightweight structure and electric motor allow it to move silently, efficiently fulfilling its task of connecting neighborhoods and carry passengers safely and predictably.

Ceremony

“Scomi invests in Brazil and in the State of São Paulo as a strategic location for the consolidation of its goals,” said the president of Scomi Group in Brazil, Hilmy Zainal, opening the Cornerstone Ceremony. Halan Moreira spoke mostly about the advantages of monorail, a technology that has carried over five billion people in the world without any fatality, and thanked the support provided by Investe SP to the project. “They took us by the hand, showing the cities and providing information, checking everything we needed. It would certainly not be possible to get this far without the support from the Agency,” he said.

The president of Vem ABC, the utility responsible for the monorail line 18, which is under development in São Paulo (SP), talked a little about the project in course. The Coordinator of the Monitoring Commission of Concessions and Permits of the Secretariat for Metropolitan Transportation of the State of São Paulo, Celso Caldeira explained the importance of public-private partnerships to speed up public works.

The director of Investe SP, Sérgio Costa, representing the president of the Agency, reinforced the importance of the support provided by the city of Taubaté to the project. “Our work does not stop here – we will be together with Scomi throughout the construction and implementation of the plant, helping to take this great technology from Taubaté to São Paulo and from São Paulo to the world,” he said.

In turn, the mayor of Taubaté, Bernardo Ortiz Júnior, talked about the importance of the project for the city. “It's not just about the rolling stock facility, but the jobs and income that will be created with it. We are bringing to the city an undergraduate course in railway engineering, for example, to enable Scomi to have access to skilled labor to increasingly grow in our city,” he said.

Several authorities attended the event, which featured, in addition to the ceremony, the burial of a time capsule at the future plant site.

About Scomi

For over 20 years in the market, Scomi develops projects for the energy, transportation and marine and inland logistics segments. In 2003, it was listed on the Malaysian stock exchange. It focuses on sustainable and environmentally friendly products, with two research and development laboratories in Malaysia and France.

It is present in over 30 countries, being responsible for the construction and operation of the monorail in Mumbai, India. The group has 2,500 direct employees and 1,000 employees.

It develops a complete line of subway-railway rolling stock for monorail, subway, LRV, conventional trains, luxury buses and special vehicles for airports.

In the energy sector, it offers complete drilling fluid solutions on oil rigs. It has the technology to treat and manage waste from oil fields, ensuring proper disposal or processing of such waste into raw materials for fertilizers and derivatives.